Jenny Uglow

Jennifer Sheila Uglow OBE (born Crowther)LondonGazette|issue=58557|startpage=12|supp=yes|notarchive=yes|date=29 December 2007|accessdate= (accessed 5 February 2008)] [http://www.kent.ac.uk/law/spu/Uglow/kent.htm Uglow Family History: Uglows in Kent] (accessed 5 February 2008)] is a British biographer, critic and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, Thomas Bewick and the Lunar Society, among others, and has also compiled a dictionary of women's biographies.

She won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for "The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future 1730–1810", and her works have twice been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.

Personal life

Uglow was brought up in Cumbria and later Dorset. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College (1958–64) and St Anne's College, University of Oxford. [ [http://www.clcguild.org/news/documents/slab_autumn_2005_002.pdf Spotlight: Guild members in print. "The Slab" 2005] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/distinguished_alumnae.html St Anne's College, University of Oxford: Distinguished alumnae] (accessed 5 February 2008)] After gaining a first in English, she took a B.Litt. In 1971, she married Steve Uglow, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent; the couple have three sons and a daughter. As of 2008, Uglow lives at Canterbury in Kent. [http://www.jennyuglow.com/ Jenny Uglow website] (accessed 5 February 2008)]

Career

Uglow has worked in publishing since leaving university; as of 2008, she is the editorial director of the publishing company Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Random House.

She is an honorary visiting professor at the University of Warwick, [ [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/people/academic/uglowprofj Warwick University: English and Comparative Literary Studies: Permanent Academic Staff: Prof. J. Uglow] (accessed 5 February 2008)] vice-president of the Gaskell Society [ [http://gaskellsociety.co.uk/society.html The Gaskell Society Committee] (accessed 6 February 2008)] and a trustee of the Wordsworth Trust. [ [http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/information/index.asp?pageid=212 The Wordsworth Trust Trustees and Fellows] (accessed 6 February 2008)] She was formerly a member of the British Library's Advisory Group for the Humanities.

Biographies

Uglow compiled an encyclopedia of biographies of prominent women, first published in 1982; the work is currently in its fourth edition and contains over 2000 biographies. [ [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-173229271.html Searing SE. Biographical reference works for and about women, from the advent of the women's liberation movement to the present: an exploratory analysis. "Library Trends" (22 September 2007)] (accessed 6 February 2008)] [ [http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=269103 Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography:, 4th Edition] (accessed 6 February 2008)] She later wrote:

Her first full-length biographies, depicting the Victorian women writers George Eliot (1987) and Elizabeth Gaskell (1993), continue her interest in documenting women and reflect her literary background. Gaskell scholar Angus Easson describes "Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories" as "the best current biography" of the author, and "The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell" refers to it as "authoritative". [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=vsT8OGxRI9cC&printsec=frontcover Easson A. Further reading. In: Gaskell EC. "Ruth", p. xxvii (Penguin Classics; 1997)] (accessed 6 February 2008)] [Hamilton S. Gaskell then and now. In: "The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell" (Matus JL, ed.), p. 187 (Cambridge University Press; 2007)]

Subsequent works have extended Uglow's range, with subjects including 18th century author Henry Fielding (1995), and artists William Hogarth (1997) and Thomas Bewick (2006). The scientists and engineers of the Lunar Society, including Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestley and Josiah Wedgwood, are the subject of her prize-winning work "The Lunar Men" (2003). [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,791087,00.html Buchan J. Reaching for the moon. "Guardian" (14 September 2002)] (accessed 6 February 2008)]

Uglow's biographies have been particularly praised for their vivid, detailed recreation of the time and place in which their subjects lived. "No one gives us the feel of past life as she does" writes A. S. Byatt of "Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick", [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/booksoftheyear2006/story/0,,1956494,00.html Byatt AS. In: Take a leaf out of their books. "The Guardian" (25 November 2006)] (accessed 8 February 2008)] and a review of "The Lunar Men" in "The Observer" claims "never has the eighteenth century come so much to life." [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,784079,00.html Wood G. Fly me to the moon... "The Observer" (1 September 2002)] (accessed 7 February 2008)] Reviewing "Hogarth: A Life and a World", Peter Ackroyd writes, "She depicts the city at first hand, almost as if she herself had been wandering through Hogarth’s engravings." [Peter Ackroyd, "The Times" (quoted at the [http://www.jennyuglow.com/ author's website] ; accessed 7 February 2008)] Frances Spalding considers "Nature's Engraver" to be "immeasurably enriched by Uglow's canny grasp of period detail." [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1882806,00.html Spalding F. The world in miniature. "The Guardian" (30 September 2006)] (accessed 8 February 2008)] David Chandler, however, complains that "Uglow tends to amass detail on quotable detail, when sometimes one would like a little more taut synthesis, more interrogation of those details." [ [http://www.erudit.org/revue/ron/1997/v/n8/005780ar.html Chandler D. Jenny Uglow, "Hogarth: A Life and a World." (Book review) "Romanticism on the Net" 8 (November 1997)] (accessed 8 February 2008)]

Uglow's depiction of scientific thought has also been praised; A. S. Byatt, for example, describes "The Lunar Men" as "full of [...] the real sense that scientific curiosity is as exciting as any 'artistic' pursuit." [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/bestof2002/story/0,,855367,00.html Byatt AS. In: Personal best, "The Guardian" (7 December 2002)] (accessed 7 February 2008)] Her discussion of art has gained a more mixed reception. "The New York Times" art critic Michael Kimmelman complains that Uglow overvalues Hogarth's paintings and neglects his artistic associates in favour of his literary ones. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/30/reviews/971130.30kimmelt.html?_r=1 Kimmelman M. An 18th-Century Paparazzo. "New York Times" (30 November 1997)] (accessed 8 February 2008)] On the other hand, Helen Macdonald, reviewing "Nature's Engraver", considers that it is "in her descriptions of the physical process of artistic creation, and her musings on individual engravings, that Uglow is at her most energetic and fluid." [ [http://www.newstatesman.com/200611130052 Macdonald H. On birds and beauty. "New Statesman" (13 November 2006)] (accessed 8 February 2008)]

Other writing and editing

Uglow's non-biographical writing includes a history of gardening in Britain, written for the bicentenary of the Royal Horticultural Society in 2004, which Uglow describes as a "labour of love". She is also a reviewer for "The Times Literary Supplement", "The Sunday Times", "The Guardian" and "The Independent on Sunday". [http://www.rsa.org.uk/events/speakerCloseUp.asp?speakerID=666 RSA Lectures: Jenny Uglow] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=269103 "Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography": Author Biographies] (accessed 5 February 2008)]

Uglow has edited collections of writings by Walter Pater (1973) and Angela Carter (1997), as well as co-editing a set of essays about Charles Babbage (1997). She has also written introductions to several works by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Radio, television and film

Uglow presented "The Poet of Albion", a BBC Radio 4 programme on William Blake, part of a series marking the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth; the programme emphasised Blake's radicalism. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/blake.shtml BBC Radio 4: William Blake anniversary] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/arts/376381/radical-prophet.thtml Chisholm K. Radical prophet: The Poet of Albion (Radio Four). "The Spectator" (28 November 2007)] (accessed 5 February 2008)] She has also twice appeared on the Radio 4 discussion programme, "In Our Time". [BBC website: "In Our Time": [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20071115.shtml The Discovery of Oxygen] & [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20030605.shtml The Lunar Society] (accessed 5 February 2008)] She acted as a historical consultant on several period dramas for the BBC, including "Wives and Daughters" (1999), "Daniel Deronda" (2002), "He Knew He Was Right" (2004), "North and South" (2004), "Bleak House" (2005) and "Cranford" (2007), as well as for the films "Pride and Prejudice" (2005) and "Miss Potter" (2006). [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880101/ IMDb: Jenny Uglow] (accessed 5 February 2008)]

Awards and honours

"The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future 1730–1810" won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography (2002), and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for history of the International PEN (2003). [ [http://www.ed.ac.uk/explore/people/jamestaitblack/biography.html James Tait Black Memorial Prizes: Previous winners – Biography] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.englishpen.org/prizes/hesselltiltmanarchiveandhist/ Hessell-Tiltman Prize - Archive & History] (accessed 5 February 2008)] Her biographies "Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories" and "Hogarth: A Life and a World" were both shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize for biography, and three of her books have reached the longlist of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction. [ [http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk/previous-winners.htm Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction: Previous Winners, Shortlists and Judges] (accessed 7 February 2008)] According to the charity Booktrust, "Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick" was the nonfiction work most often selected as "book of the year" by critics in 2006. [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1988924,00.html Rickett J. The bookseller. "The Guardian" (13 January 2007)] (accessed 8 February 2008)]

Uglow is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [ [http://www.rslit.org/fellows.htm Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature] (accessed 5 February 2008)] She has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Birmingham, University of Kent, Staffordshire University and Birmingham City University. [ [http://www.publications.bham.ac.uk/annual-review-03/honours.htm University of Birmingham: Honours and Awards 2003] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.kent.ac.uk/news/stories/hondegrees/2003 University of Kent: Top comedian and actor to receive University of Kent Honorary Degree] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.staffs.ac.uk/university/honoraries/previous/index.php Staffordshire University: Previous Honorary Awards] (accessed 5 February 2008)] [ [http://www.lhds.bcu.ac.uk/news/55 Birmingham City University: Faculty of Law, Humanities, Development and Society: University honour for author Jenny Uglow] (accessed 5 February 2008)] In 2008, she was awarded the OBE for services to literature and publishing.

Works

Biographies and studies

*"George Eliot" (1987)
*"Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories" (1993)
*"Henry Fielding" (1995)
*"Hogarth: A Life and a World" (1997)
*"Dr Johnson, His Club and Other Friends" (1998)
*"The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730–1810" (2003)
*"Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography" (later editions with Maggy Hendry; 4th edn; 2005)
*"Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick" (2006)

Other nonfiction

*"A Little History of British Gardening" (2004)

As editor

*"Walter Pater: Essays on Literature and Art" (1973)
*"Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings" (1997) (by Angela Carter)
*"The Vintage Book of Ghosts" (1997)
*"Cultural Babbage: Technology, Time and Invention" (with Francis Spufford; 1997)

References

External links

* [http://www.jennyuglow.com/ Jenny Uglow website]